Obama's Faith: Rumor vs. Reality

Beliefnet answers your questions about Barack Obama's faith, including rumors about Islam, his church, and his upbringing.

As the battle for the presidency heats up, Sen. Barack Obama's faith and family history have become fodder for political mudslinging, leaving voters to wonder what the truth is. In this FAQ, Beliefnet separates fact from fiction--from questions about his ties to Islam, to his stance on Israel and Palestine, to accusations that he attends a black supremacist church.

Click on one of the links below to go directly to that topic (or click here to ask your question and discuss Obama's faith):

A: No. Barack Obama is Christian. He has been an active member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years. The title of Obama’s 2006 book "The Audacity of Hope" is taken from a sermon by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright—one of the nation’s best-known black preachers—who led Obama to the church in the 1980s.

Q. I’ve heard that Obama's father was Muslim and that Obama spent time in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country.

A: Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a white mother from a Protestant Christian background—Obama later called her a “lonely witness for secular humanism”—and a black father from Kenya. His father was raised a Muslim, but Obama has said that “by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.” Obama’s parents divorced when he was two, and his father made his way back to Kenya; New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and others have reported that his father, also named Barack Hussein Obama, practiced polygamy, a local custom. He saw his son just once more before being killed in a car accident.

When he was six, Obama moved with his mother and her second husband, a Muslim whom Obama and his sister have described as not religious, to Indonesia. Obama lived there for four years, until 1971. Last year, the Los Angeles Times reported that Obama occasionally accompanied his stepfather to prayers at the local mosque, though Obama’s sister issued a statement that the family attended the mosque for “big communal events,” rather than every Friday. The Obama campaign responded to the story by saying that “Obama has never been a practicing Muslim.”

According to the L.A. Times, Obama spent the second and third grades in Indonesia in a Catholic school and third and fourth grades in a public school, which Obama has called a “Muslim school.” Because Obama was registered as a Muslim there—other students were apparently registered as Christians or Buddhists—he attended two hours of Qur’anic study a week. Reputable news organizations have shown that the rumor that Obama attended a radical Islamic madrassa is false.

Q: How did the false rumors start?

A: The rumors have spread largely via email, though it’s unclear who’s behind them. According to the University of Pennsylvania’s FactCheck.org, the claims stem from a January 2007 article in Insight Magazine, owned by the same company as the conservative Washington Times. “Are the American people ready,” the article asked, “for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?”

Some Obama opponents have fanned the flames of the false Muslim rumor. A photo of Obama in traditional Somali garb that was posted in February on the Drudge Report website reportedly came from a Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, though Clinton and her top aides denied involvement. At a February John McCain rally in Cincinnati, the Arizona senator was introduced by a local radio host who repeatedly invoked Obama’s full name, Barack Hussein Obama, declaring the need to “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.” McCain quickly apologized. But other Obama critics—including prominent Clinton backer and former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey—have invoked his middle name.